Never seen a diamond in the flesh...

Cold season is upon as, and that means only one thing. Rudolph nose time. Although I have been lucky enough to escape a cold so far (touch wood), I did come down with an awful something during the Summer, and the only thing that helped with all my red and chapped skin on my face was this Cicaplast from La Roche-Posay.

This is one of the products that I picked up during my trip to Paris earlier in the year. It's the only one that I bought with no prior knowledge of the product, but as I know that I always get flaking, chapped skin at some point during the year, I thought it might be worth picking up, especially as I hadn't seen it with the normal La Roche-Posay line that you find in Boots in the UK.

The packaging is the same as other La Roche-Posay products of the same sizing, like the Effaclar range etc, and I have no problems with it. It's simple, effective, minimilizes wasted product and looks nice and neat on my bathroom shelf.

As for how the product works, like I said earlier, it was the only thing that helped when I had really flaked and chapped skin. I tend to put it on before bed, as it's a little bit too thick and greasy to wear during the day, and I wake up with my skin feeling soothed and far less red and chapped. Now, I'm not going to say this is a miracle worker and that it healed my skin completely in one night (if anyone has a miracle product like that, I'd love to hear about it), but it did help with the healing process, and I noticed a difference in how quickly the chapped skin went away.

Do you have a go to product like this when a cold strikes? Let me know!

love, Naomi 

Kiss me hard before you go ...

Winter is coming, and that means dry legs and elbow season. During the summer my legs don't get too dry, as my skin is generally quite normal However, in the winter, my skin goes crazy and responds to the cold by trying it's best to resemble snake skin. I find the worst affected area tends to be my shins, and to combat this, I like to pull out my trusty Vaseline moisturiser.

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This bottle is actually one that I picked up from Japan a while ago, so I'm not sure if the packaging is the same as in England but I'm sure the product isn't that different. I'm a big fan of this moisturiser for a few reasons. Firstly, it does a great job at getting rid of the snake-like look of my winter legs and replacing them with lovely, soft and smooth ones instead. It also sinks in really quickly, which is great when I'm in a rush as I absolutely hate the feeling of trying to squeeze into jeans whilst my legs are still slimey from moisturiser; it's quite enough of a struggle to get them on as it is thank you very much. Although it's not as thick as my usual choice of mosituriser (various thick body butters), I find it still does a good job of locking in moisture - as the name suggests - and keeping my legs moisturised for the rest of the day.

Do you any of you struggle with the same snake-skin leg syndrome? How do you deal with it, I'd love to know!

love, Naomi

My hair smells like chocolate ...

As you may or may not know, I have incredibly thick hair. I'm talking, you struggle to touch my scalp through my forst of hair thick. This also means that I'm lucky enough to not struggle with my hair knotting too badly as the weight keeps it down most of the time. But when I wash it, now that is a whole 'nother story. To solve this problem, I present to you one of my favourite products ...

Yes, yes that does say kids on the bottle. If you have a problem with that, then look away now. I love this stuff. I remember using this when I was little, with even thicker hair (if that's possible), and my mum would spray this before beginning the 30 minute battle that was brushing my hair. The smell reminds me of being a little kid, and it still works just as well at detangling. It doesn't leave any residue on my hair, and the smell lingers just enough for my hair to smell lovely, sweet and clean without being overpowering. I believe this was on offer when I picked it up, but its inexpensive regardless so definitely worth a look.  

Do any of you use detangling sprays? What're your favourites? Let me know!

love, Naomi

Here we go again ...

Sorry for the radio silence, finally back to my own computer and photos. Here's a quick review on a nail varnish that I picked up a little while ago. I managed to catch it in natural lighting, but I'm afraid that washed out the colour slightly, so it's picking up slightly more orange than it really is. In reality it's more of a coral leaning towards orange.

I really love the colour of this, and it looked great when I had a bit more of my tan so was more-or-less my staple summer nail varnish. I realise it probably seems a little silly to be posting about a summer colour as we're coming into winter but I'm one of those people who likes to wear bright colours on my nails regardless of the season. Living in black clothes means that my nails are a nice way to pop a bit of colour into my look without having to brave colourful clothes. I find the formula really easy to work with, being opaque in just one coat, although I like to do two for good measure. It wears reasonably well, managing a good 3-4 days without chipping, which is good for me as my nails seem to catch and chip on everything.

I'd really recommend these Rimmel nail varnishes as they're so reasonably priced, especially at the moment with both Boots and Superdrug doing their 3 for 2 offers. I have a feeling I may be picking a few more up in the near future.

love, Naomi 

BRB...

I'm afraid I've been away from home for a few days, and although I have access to a computer, I have no access to my photos so all I can share with you today is a bit of music I've been listening to. That'll teach me to leave home unprepared and to not use an online hosting site. Does anyone have any good recommendations for online pictures hosting sites?

Be back soon, but in the mean time, here's a song I've been listening to quite a bit:

I love Walk Off the Earth as a whole, so check out some of their other covers! So much fun just to watch.

Dear darling ...

Now, this may not be a typical 'beauty' post, but lets face it, everyone uses deodorant (I hope ...), so let's not pretend that you don't want to talk about it. I was always a spray deodorant girl and never really had the patience to sit there flapping my arms around until my roll-on was dry. On the other hand, I sweat ... a lot .. Sorry for telling you that, but now that we've established it I feel like I can give a much more in-depth and honest review of my new favourite deodorant: Mitchum Advanced Control.

To start with, the packaging isn't all that exciting, but it's nothing offensive and as it stays tucked in my wicker box on my windowsill I'm not too worried.

In terms of how it works, it's a thumbs up from me. It dries quickly, meaning I don't have to resemble a chicken as I try to get my armpits dry before I put my clothes on. The smell is unoffensive, and I like how fresh it is without clashing with my perfume. For a normal day of doing things around the house/going out it keeps me dry and fresh smelling for the whole day. If I'm going to the gym, I'll pop it on again just before and I find that I'm dry afterwards, no matter what I've done which is no mean feat I'll have you know. 

So there you go, there's my favourite deodorant. Let me know if you've ever tried this one, or what your favourite is.

A little explanation ...

So ... Hey there. It's been a while. About 4 months actually, and for that I'm sorry. I've been hidden away in the depths of rustic Italy since July working my summer job as a waitress and at a B+B. I had such an amazing time, and I was kept very busy with work, so blogging became quite difficult. That and the fact that the only thing I could blog about would be the food (DE-LI-CIOUS), but as I was the one serving it rather than eating it, I feel like it would probably have been frowned upon to whip out my camera after putting someone's food down in front of them and asking them if I can take a quick pic before they start eating ....

I wish I had some photos to share with you, but I'm ashamed to admit that I really didn't take that many. Although the view was stunning and I woke up to the sight of the rolling hills of the valley every morning, I started to get used to it, and it soon didn't seem as amazing as I thought it was upon arrival and by the time I was leaving and realised I was going to miss it, the English weather had come to join me and my beautiful view was covered in grey clouds.

But I'm back now, officially feeling a little lost and in a very in-between stage of my life. This is the first time that I've finished summer and not had to go to school, and I'm sure everyone who has experienced that will remember just how odd it is to see everyone back at school and not to be there yourself. I'm on my gap year now, applying to unis, internships and work experience and just trying to find myself and grow up a bit I suppose (please excuse the cliche, it kills me just reading that back.)

Now that I don't have school commitments and no full time job as of yet, I'm hoping to put a little more time into my blog here (...again ... I know .. Fifth time lucky?). I finally feel happy with the layout, and have a lot of things that I want to share.

So bear with me as I try to find my feet on this blog again. My photos may be a little dodgy as I try to find a photography style that suits me, but I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing them improve, and at least they won't get any worse. That's it from me for now, but speak soon. Promise.

Only miss the sun when it starts to snow ...

The sun has been making an appearance lately .. or at least it should be. Whether it's there or not, I'm determined to get a little bit of leg out as we're definitely well into summer June. However, due to the ridiculous lack of any form of sunlight, my legs are looking a little worse than I'd like them to be and are very much resembling the colour of my breakfast yoghurt (coconut Perle de Lait for anyone wondering). Unfortunately, I'm not much of a fake-tanner, for no other reason than I am very lazy and can't really be bothered to put in the effort of the constant reapplying. Therefore, I'm more of a fun of a nice gradual tanning moisturiser, so I can do both steps in one. Step in Palmers Natural Bronze. I'm generally a huge fan of the Palmers range, cocoa butter does a world of good for my skin and it absolutely drinks it in, so in terms of moisture, this is great. The tanning is also exactly how I want it. Within 2 or 3 days of consecutive use I've got a lovely golden tan without looking like I've been wotsitted alla Georgia from angus thongs and perfect snogging (anyone else remember watching this at sleepovers? No? Just me?). I get a nice even tan from this with no streaks, and the smell is satisfactorily un-biscuity, instead having the usual chocolately smell of cocoa butter which I am a hge fan of.